A New Secondary School for Burnham

This group is campaigning for a new, high-performing, non-selective secondary school on the Opendale Road School site in Burnham. (* non-selective means no entrance exams, and not a grammar school)

Currently, the 70% of children who do not pass the 11+ must travel out of the area to school, enduring a longer school day and costing parents more than £1100 per child. Burnham is the only place in Buckinghamshire to have a grammar school but no corresponding non-selective secondary school. This clearly discriminates against the majority of the children in the area, as only those who pass the 11+ can go to school locally.

The basics:

1960 Burnham Grammar School opened.
1980s Buckinghamshire Council attempted to close BGS. Parents and the local community protested and the decision by Bucks Council was over-turned by the Secretary of Education.
2023 Burnham Grammar School is now an over-subscribed thriving school.

1969 Burnham Upper School (non-selective) opened.

We had a busy school and it was full to capacity for many years.

2012 School was transferred to E-ACT Academy.
2012 Ofsted inspection rated the school as ‘requiring improvement’.
2014 onwards school declined in inspections until it’s closure.

Student numbers reduced, as expected, for a declining school.

Parents & Guardians found solutions for their children under duress.

2019 instead of fixing the problem, the decision was made to close the school.

A narrow assumption was made that families were happy to send their children to Maidenhead.

Parents & Guardians were not consulted adequately.

2020 the local community, parents & guardians, several local teachers and Headteachers raised the concern that a school needs to re-open at this site.
2020 October this campaign group started with their support.
Onwards – verified data gathered, student numbers reviewed, local birth trends and housing researched. We have enough numbers for a school.
TODAY – Do Something ! 1. Complete SURVEY 2. Write LETTER 3. Sign PETITION